LOL DemocratsFollow

Last November was a pretty good month for state Democrats in Illinois. Democrats won every state-wide office, control both chambers of the General Assembly and are in complete control of the state workings. The state GOP is pretty much considered dead as far as pushing state-wide candidates go.

So... imagine the fun when the Illinois General Assembly met to discuss the state budget for the fiscal year. Governor Blagojevich has all sorts of pie-in-the-sky plans such as state-wide health care and education programs but very little notion on how to fund them. His ideas for funding have included a raise on corporate taxes (shot down unanimously in the GA) and leasing the Illinois State Lottery to a 3rd party. I don't much care for Blagojevich; I predicted last term that he'd be a one-term governor but, going back to how weak the state GOP here is, he managed to win another term despite himself.

Springfield (the Illinois capital, not the Simpsons town) had until May 31st to pass a new budget with a simple majority. Given that the Democrats had a simple majority everywhere, this shouldn't have been hard. It was. Michael Madigan, Speaker of the State House, refused to go along with Blagojevich's spending plans and the budget talks stalled. May 31st (the deadline) came and passed and now a new problem -- if the budget didn't pass by a simple majority by the deadline, the rules require a 3/5ths super-majority to pass it. So now the state Republicans need to put their vote behind it as well.

Next stop is July. The old budget was expiring so the General Assembly managed to pass a one-month budget to get us through. Right before Independence Day, Blagojevich decided to show how tough he was by declaring a Special Session of the state legislature every day until a new budget was passed. So, at significant expense, the rank-and-file members of the GA have been sitting around seven days a week playing paddleball while the leaders hash out whatever. Lately, the rank-and-file have been saying "Fuck this" and staying home despite the special sessions.

Which finally brings us to today -- the temp budget expired last Tuesday and there's still no budget. State checks for payroll, Medicaid, subsidized child care, etc are all due to go out on the 8th. Except there's no money for them because there's no budget. Blagojevich is offering interest-free loans directly from the state treasury to public schools so they can get running. Supposedly, the major state agencies have told their employees to show up, budget or no budget. And there's still no budget in sight.

LOL Democrats.

And here I thought they would just cover it with all the new Tobacco Taxes that are just sure to come screaming into the coffers.

/scoff

Yea, they passed. It was a 75 Cent increase on the proposal but they elected to make it 90 cents. Something like $1.88 per pack is going to state taxes in IL. They expect $378 Million in revenue from it. Then, of course, in January all public places in IL going smoke-free.



Never heard of her before now but then again, I don't pay that much attention to your Legal Dept over there. Fairly young though, go her.

This sounds like the status quo in most cases. I can remember hearing several times how New York has gone practically till the next year without a budget.

Christ, you're obtuse.

I heard about the new tobacco tax, and ofcourse, the state-wide ban on smoking effective January 1, 2008. Needless to say, as a smoker, I was very disappointed.

At least I won't have to think up a creative New Year's Resolution.

Hey Kao, y'know that "Army of Wombats" you're always talking about? I need to borrow them this winter.

No party has trademarked retardation.

There's always next year!

Personally, I'd like to see California pass a budget where the legislature gets to work with, say, last year's budget, but anything more must be passed by citizens by simple majority on a voting day which takes place on April 14th. Anything beyond the day where the budget is due comes out of the congressmen's own salary to the tune of $1,000 a day as a penalty for not playing well with others. The money recouped then goes back to the citizens in the form of tax relief.

I guarantee you budgets would be prompt and tidy-- and there'd be no frivolous spending on the stupid stuff.

Totem